Star Jones Gastric Bypass Before and After

Star Jones has been hot topic for the press before and after her weight loss surgery.

Former “View” co-host Star Jones Reynolds has been hot topic for the press ever since she lost 160 pounds over three years as a result of a dramatic weight loss surgery performed back in 2003. During this time Star Jones kept her surgery under wraps, only admitting to having undergone a “medical intervention.” Then finally last year, in the September issue of Glamour magazine, Reynolds opened up about her gastric bypass surgery and self-esteem issues.

“Everything about me was already so public (mostly my own doing talk about dumb!), so of course everyone wanted to know what I had done. I was also terrified someone would have a tragic result after emulating me without making an informed decision with the doctor.”

Reynolds describes how out-of-control behavior began around her 40th birthday in 2002. Over the course of 17 months she rapidly gained 75 pounds (34 kg), weighing 307 pounds (139.25 kg) at her heaviest.

“I used to look in the mirror and take pride in my figure, but that was when I was legitimately a full-figured woman,” she says. “I’d gradually gone from full-figured to morbidly obese.”

Reynolds gastric bypass was highly successful, helping her to drop 160 pounds over three years. But Reynolds insecurities caused her to continually dodge questions about her rapidly changing figure. Reynolds says every time people asked how she had lost weight, she was “intentionally evasive”.

“But the complete truth is, I was scared of what people might think of me,” she continues. “I was afraid to be vulnerable, and ashamed at not being able to get myself under control without this procedure.”

Now, nearly a year after speaking up about her weight loss surgery Star Jones Reynolds is still dealing with scrutiny from the media. In May earlier this year, colleague Barbra Walters appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show to talk about her new book “Audition”, in which Walters admits many things including her two year affair with married African-American Sen. Edward Brooke in the 1970s.

During the show Walters claimed she had to lie about Jones’ dramatic 160-pound weight loss in 2003, after Jones refused to appear on an episode of “20/20″ to discuss the surgery.

“We thought it would be helpful for people to see her losing and losing and losing weight, they should understand the dangers and the good things and so forth,” Walters said. “Then she decided she would tell nobody, and we had to then lie on the set every day.”

Reynolds has spoken up against Walters’ claim, arguing it was Walters who asked Jones to lie about her gastric-bypass surgery.

“It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book,” Jones told Us. “It speaks to her true character.”